


Win

by firerwolf



Series: Infinity Week 2020 [4]
Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26629015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firerwolf/pseuds/firerwolf
Summary: Entry for day 4 of Infinity Week 2020.
Series: Infinity Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1934041
Kudos: 11





	Win

The shot from the Hunter's fuel rod gun shook the ground, spraying bits of molten glass from the impact. Palmer ran through her options, which didn't take long as she had so few. She had no ammo, her team was spread out, and they were facing two Hunters that had them all hiding in cover. Not a great position to be in. Palmer looked to her left where the Master Chief was crouched behind a partially broken concrete barrier. She knew Linda was still above them in her perch but she also knew the sniper only had a couple rounds left from her count. On the other side of the hunters she knew that Fred and Kelly had taken cover themselves. 

Sarah accepted that she had to figure that all the worst scenarios were the case, which left her only one option. "Hope you don't miss a shot for the first time in your life," Palmer said before she swiftly moved out of cover and charged toward the Hunters. She focused only on the Hunter she was targeting, if the other attacked her at this range there wouldn’t be anything she could do about it anyway. The Hunter she was charging stabbed its shield at her and she rolled to the side. Before it could sweep the shield at her she used the metal plate as a ramp to get up to the neck of its armor. She grabbed the helmet of the Hunter, set one foot against the front of the Hunter’s chest plate and the other against the back section of the neckline. With one strong push she forced the back of the armor to break away, leaving the enemy with a large weak spot. The Hunter flailed violently enough to throw Palmer to the ground. The Hunter had just turned to follow up and strike at Palmer when the crack of Linda's sniper rifle cut through the air. The Hunter stumbled before it toppled to the ground. 

Palmer was scrambling to her feet when she heard the roar of the second Hunter. It had leveled its cannon at her and Palmer was sure she couldn't move away in time. John slammed into her side, forcing Palmer out of the way of the blast. There was the loud bang of a shotgun and Palmer knew that Kelly had used one of her few remaining shots causing the Hunter to turn toward her. Sarah pushed herself to her feet and looked toward John, and the frag grenade on he still had at his hip. She didn’t have time to explain what he needed to do so Palmer just took action. She grabbed the grenade from John’s armor and moved toward the Hunter. She shoved the hand with the grenade up under the armor plating of the Hunter’s midsection. She moved to withdraw her hand but cursed as she found that her hand was stuck. She gripped her arm with her other hand, strengthened her stance and pulled in an attempt to free herself but it seemed hopeless. Two other hands grabbed her arm as the Master Chief joined her. He set a foot against the Hunter’s leg for more leverage and they pulled together. The combined force was enough to pull Palmer free and she released the grenade as her hand retracted. John turned to move away but Palmer knew they wouldn’t get away before the explosive went off. She raised her left arm, activated her hard light shield moving slightly to be sure her teammate would also be protected. The grenade went off and the force depleted the hard light shield and drained Palmer’s shield. The impact knocked both Spartans to the ground but otherwise they were unharmed. 

Palmer let herself take a moment to catch her breath. She'd been fully ready to accept the outcome of her choice but beside her armor alerting her of a depleted shield she was fine. A hand appeared in her vision and she looked up at John and his offered assistance. She grabbed his hand and let him pull her to her feet. "Effective strategy, ma'am." 

"Thanks, stole that bit of stupid from you," Palmer informed the Spartan II. 

The Master Chief was quiet for a moment, just staring at her. "I've done that before? When?" 

Palmer simply shrugged. "No idea, some time before I was born," she answered. "Roland!" Palmer's voice was sharp as she called to Infinity's AI. 

The aviator avatar of the smart AI appeared, full sized. "Congratulations, Commander, on your fantastic simulation win. I'll prepare an export of the simulation's footage and statistics for the researchers." 

"What you should prepare is for me to find a way to strangle you to death, even if you are a hologram," Palmer informed him. "You don't mess with a sim without informing the participants and you know those modifiers aren't approved." 

"Modifiers?" John asked, completely lost. 

"The war games are a precision made simulation, their parameters can be loosened for teams that are struggling and learning all the way to realistic simulations to fully prepare a Spartan team. The techs designed some modifiers that do things like cut timers in half, make enemies stronger, vehicles that are immune to weapons, or things like Hunters that you have to break the armor with your hands or attack up close to kill." Palmer motioned toward the two dead Hunters beside them and the bodies vanished as the simulation shut down. "They haven't been tested for actual application." 

"What better test than the five greatest Spartans the UNSC has to offer. If you can't do it then they'd know they needed to be adjusted," Roland reasoned. "Besides, I got permission to modify your simulation without telling you. The Captain said I could." 

"You sure you wanna throw him under the bus like that?" Palmer asked, crossing her arms. 

"Well in his defense he never said I could use unapproved modifiers, he just also didn't say I couldn't use them," Roland explained. 

"We'll discuss this later," Palmer informed the AI with a stern glare. Roland seemed completely unmoved, just smiling as though he'd done nothing wrong. 

"We did win," the Master Chief stated. "If we could beat then then they are doable." Palmer didn't respond. She didn't want to admit it but she knew by the time she actually talked to Tom about Roland's actions she will have reasoned out some positives of it all. 

"We did win," Palmer agreed, but for now that was as much positive as she wanted to see from the experience. "Let's clear out, I have a packed schedule of Spartans who have sims to run and I'm not letting them off the hook." Palmer turned and walked toward the exit of the simulation, the rest of Blue Team following her as the simulated world around them deconstructed.


End file.
